HOW TO PRONOUNCE Æ Ø Å - And why we started using these letters in Norway

I take you through the history of the Æ Ø Å in the Norwegian alphabet. And teach you how to pronounce them.
Greetings,
Pål
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Sharing KZbin videos about Norway and Scandinavia. Episodes about history, food, travel, language, sailing and more.

[@rachelpare3780]

You are a man of many talents, Pål. Not only as an excellent tour guide but a good teacher as well. You keep surprising your viewers.

[@norwaywithpal]

Thanks a lot Rachel! I hope you and Guy have been able to practice the Æ Ø Å now ;)

[@thwunder]

The comparison with easy English words really helped. Tusen takk!

[@norwaywithpal]

Great! Glad to hear it helped :)

[@efectoconsumado8674]

I loved this video, I was repeating with you in front of my screen, and I did perfect!

[@norwaywithpal]

That is great! You'll sound like a local then :D

[@BratLisa]

I found my DNA is over 40% Scandinavian!!! I'm 56 and never knew this. I am so happy to find you!!! Very easy and perfect way to teach an old dog a new trick. Thank you. I subscribed and will be watching you. I am now planning a trip to Scandinavia. But I am learning everything I can so when I get there I have a beginning and then can learn more. I definitely want to see the Aurora Borealis in the night sky. I believe it is in winter from September until March. I want to learn, know, and see EVERYTHING about my heritage. If I am wrong about anything Please correct me. I don't get mad, I gain more knowledge. So win, win for me. Again greetings from the United States of America. Have a blessed day and stay safe. ♥️💋🙏

[@norwaywithpal]

Hi there! Glad you discovered my channel, and is so eager to learn about Norway :D Interestingly it is said to be more Norwegian DNA in the US than there is in Norway. I find that quite impressive, but says a lot of the amount of Norwegians that crossed the pond, and never came back. I hope you get to visit some day!

[@TheOldPrinter]

Coming to Norway next month and learning enough Norsk to at least order øl and find the toalett. Thanks for the tremendous help!

[@norwaywithpal]

Those are the two most important things to know. Enjoy your stay! Skål 🍻

[@daisycake1832]

Sooooooo helpful for first-learnt English speakers xo

[@norwaywithpal]

Glad to hear that :)

[@Johnny5477]

This is the best explanation I've heard so far, I've been struggling with ø for the two months since I started learning. Once you gave the comparison with "pearl", I got it.

[@norwaywithpal]

That is great! Good luck on learning Norwegian

[@MsPeanut320]

Thank you so much for this explanation.

[@norwaywithpal]

You welcome! Thanks for watching

[@alrush1234]

Good share on knowledge. Thank you for that.

[@norwaywithpal]

You welcome! Vær så god

[@michaeln3267]

Thank you very much. I've been meaning to check out the pronunciation of these letters for a while. Thanks for the clear, concise explanation.

[@norwaywithpal]

Hei Michael, you welcome! Thanks for watching the episode :)

[@anamaia7907]

I've watched thousands videos untill now and you're the only one who explained it perfectly! Thank you so much 💞

[@norwaywithpal]

Tusen takk Ana! Glad I could help :)

[@ivaniacarrera8273]

This is a really good and helpful video! Very clear and straightforward. Tusen takk Pål! Here’s a new subscriber from Chile🇨🇱!

[@norwaywithpal]

Muchas gracias Ivania! I’m glad you enjoyed it. Saludos

[@soykre4645]

This norweggian langiage is righter than other norvrgian language learning channels...tusen tak Pål.you did help me very

[@norwaywithpal]

Bare hyggelig!

[@ktianaalnas-benson1144]

That was fun and instructional!

[@norwaywithpal]

Tusen takk Tiana! :)

Thank you for this video. Very helpful!

[@norwaywithpal]

You welcome! Glad it can help :)

[@bennypax2167]

Interesting your way to inform us on the original of your language and the similitude with the Swedish and Denmark

[@norwaywithpal]

Thank you Benny, yes there are many similarities between the three countries. For instance written Norwegian and Danish is almost 90% similar, but the pronunciation is very different.

[@mariamekvtimishvili8455]

Very helpful. Takk!

[@norwaywithpal]

You are welcome! Bare hyggelig :)

[@user-gy7pv4vm1d]

Thanks for making Norwegian easier.Thanks from Bulgaria

[@norwaywithpal]

You welcome! Thanks for watching the episode

[@rainbs2nd957]

I love the fact that a few places are literally called "Å".

[@norwaywithpal]

hehe yea, make it simple

[@lennarthagen3638]

Im from ÅLESUND

[@ronhill4006]

Pal, Enjoyed you on Rick's Monday Night Travel this evening. Thx for your helpful lesson above. Looking forward to visiting Norway soon.

[@norwaywithpal]

Thanks Ron, glad you enjoyed the show and this episode :) Hope to see you over here some day!

[@evygil]

awesome!

[@Krolmis]

Thænk you! Now I knå!

[@norwaywithpal]

Hehe ja, you welkåm

[@fawziamahmoodi7686]

veldig bra Tusen Takk❤

[@norwaywithpal]

Takk for at du så på :)

[@DaniArt]

Wow please teach us Norwegian I’m a new subscriber, your video was so helpful and amazing.🙌 Greetings from Colombia! 🇨🇴 Tusen tak!

[@norwaywithpal]

Gracias :) I'm glad it could help :D

[@alexandria91799645]

tusen takk!

[@norwaywithpal]

Vær så god!

[@holgerzimmer6884]

Ciao Pal, great work! Have a fine year and hope to be sailing with you sometime this year!! ;-)

[@norwaywithpal]

Thank you Holger! Hope 2021 is treating you well. You are always welcome to come and sail :)

[@angelflot]

More content like this! I didn’t think of using the American words as comparison as you did. It makes it easier to teach the barne barne.

[@norwaywithpal]

Tusen takk Donna! Good that you are teaching your barnebarn some Norwegian :)

[@kalfaxplays7899]

nice structure to the video.

[@norwaywithpal]

Thanks! :)

[@barrybryan1484]

You have yet another career option: language professor! Very informative, as always.

[@norwaywithpal]

Thank you Barry, and it weighs heavy hearing it from an actual Professor :) Btw. Congratulations with a new President yesterday.

[@barrybryan1484]

@@norwaywithpal Inauguration Day was a indeed a comforting day.

[@norwaywithpal]

@@barrybryan1484 same for me!

[@hellohello-fs7we]

I went through this because i wasnt sure how it could be different from Swedish o omdaut, to then learn it was the same

[@norwaywithpal]

Yes very very similar, but it’s not an umlaut in Swedish. Ö is a separate letter with its own “life”. I believe in Germany they call it umlaut

[@fatimamustafa-xm6jp]

thank you!!!!!!!!

[@norwaywithpal]

You welcome :) Værsågod

[@paulengstrom432]

when you said the Norwegian word for "what", it sounded like the English word "huh?", which is what we often say when we mean "what did you say?"

[@norwaywithpal]

Yep, same meaning here. Or it can also be used when someone say something outrageous like: "the world is flat" HÆ?? ;)

[@davidlawrence2508]

It is a great lesson, and some background too. I am going to write this down, as I know now, that you like to give us a quiz. I know Pat would like to win it. I just realized today that Norwegians

[@norwaywithpal]

Thanks! Remember that the price of my quiz might be lutefisk ;)

[@davidlawrence2508]

@@norwaywithpal Laughing

[@paulab7904]

Thank you! Trying to find original pronunciation of my last name that’s been very Americanized

[@norwaywithpal]

Bare hyggelig, you welcome :) I guess your last name would have been spelled Bjørgaa, or Bjørgå, or Bjørgås

[@Vinterfrid]

Pål forgot to mention that the Norwegians and Danes got these three extra vowels from us Swedes - we have always been kind to our smaller siblings! 😉

[@norwaywithpal]

Cultures tend to borrow things from each other, like how the Swedish meatballs originated from Turkey ;) also I’m at least the ö originates from Germanic

[@Vinterfrid]

@@norwaywithpal You should know by now that it's a myth as regards Swedish meatballs originating from Turkey; meatballs are found all over the world and they do not originate from any particular land. One typical Norwegian dish though is 'fiskekake' - fortunately it's rare to find it in Sweden. 🙂

[@norwaywithpal]

@@Vinterfrid haha I'm just teasing you Vinterfrid.. I think to claim ownership of most anything is risky business, most of our traditions and culture was imported from somewhere else, but we made it our own

[@ilija_Duniczew]

We have the same sounds in Bulgarian, and we have special letters for them as well.

[@norwaywithpal]

Cool! I did not know that. How do you write those letters?

[@ilija_Duniczew]

@@norwaywithpal Æ is А, Ø is Ъ and Å looks like an ordinary О. But that's how it is in our modern alphabet, in the old one there are much more variations how to write some letters, for example you can use for "O" [Å] the letter "omega" [Ѡ/Ѽ] too.

[@ilija_Duniczew]

@@norwaywithpal btw, really cool video, i enjoyed it and it helped understanding Norwegian:)

[@norwaywithpal]

@@ilija_Duniczew Thank you, that is very cool to know! Greetings from PѼL :)

[@norwaywithpal]

@@ilija_Duniczew Glad to hear that! :D

[@vanme739]

Dette hjelper meg så mye i min læringsprosess på norsk! (Hopefully I said that right 😬) so far the “ø” is the most challenging letter for my English speaking lips but I’m practicing a lot. Takk! Ha det! 😊

[@norwaywithpal]

Great! Many English speaking people try and pronounce Ø from the back of their mouth. But it's actually a sound that comes from the front. Try that ;) Good luck on learning Norwegian!

[@vanme739]

@@norwaywithpal gode råd! 🗣😊

[@lhauberwall]

@@norwaywithpal, I am confused. It seemed to me that you said the opposite in the video. Is the ø pronounced in the front or in the back?

[@rboyer09rb]

Thank you for this, its very informative and helpful! Working on trying to master as much of the language before my wife and I visit in the next few years! Would you happen to have any tips on pronouncing the "kjø" sound by chance? That that is one I struggle with 😅 Tusen Takk, Pål!

[@norwaywithpal]

Thanks a lot Ryan! Kjø is a tricky one, and is also pronounced a bit differently. The younger generation tends to take a short cut and says shø..like in shop, where the sounds comes from the front of your mouth, just with an ø. While I make the sound a bit further back in the mouth (in the middle)... Kind of like the sound you make in English when you say chilly chø.. Don't know how clear that was. This is how I could say kjøp (buy): forvo.com/word/kj%C3%B8p/

[@rboyer09rb]

@@norwaywithpal that was very helpful! Thank you for the explanation and taking the time to reply!

[@toka0555]

The Ø is also very similar to the Ö in German ! :)

[@norwaywithpal]

Yea that is true! I think you name it for an O with an umlaut?

[@pattyseljestad9411]

Tusen Takk Pål! You are correct, Ø is the most challenging Norwegian sound to master. Until now, I didn't realize there was a similar sound in English. Does onion or eye in learning ø sound work?

[@norwaywithpal]

You welcome Patty! Bare hyggelig :). Onion and eye does not work I’m afraid..

[@ELTechnicalRBLX]

When the å is still written aaa in my English accent it is Pronounced “æææ”.

[@AWeekLastTuesday]

As a kid growing up with a Danish father, those three letters alwasy vexed me, but my question what is the point of AE if it sounds like a short a? Would the word sound different if spelted with an A then if spelt with the AE letter? Pardon the dumb question.

[@norwaywithpal]

Hey there! There is def a difference in pronouncing a and æ.. even a short a. I think if one listens carefully there is a bit of an e sound at the end of saying æ.. it’s a tricky letter, all though I find people struggling more with the ø than the æ

[@silentlee2073]

Hey pal!

[@norwaywithpal]

Hei hei!

[@siennas]

Hi, great examples. I have problems with writing these letters. How do you write the capital letter versions (uppercase) and lower case? How do you solve the problem with typing these letters? Do Norwegians use special keyboards?

[@norwaywithpal]

Hei Senka, those are good questions. And yes, we have a special keyboard with the æøå. The the øæ is after L (english keyboard) and the å is after P. To write them on your phone (ios) is easy, just hold the "A" key or "O" key in for a second and you'll get a selection of special characters. For computer keyboards there are several ways. Maybe I should make a video about it, but you could check out the links under. I hope that helps! www.learn-norwegian.net/other/typing.htm www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Norway_Typing_%C3%86,_%C3%98,_and_%C3%85 sydaby.eget.net/emig/emig/scands.htm

[@lunartree]

if you don't have a keyboard that can type them, you could also use other letter combinations. æ can be written as "ae", ø can be written as "oe", & å can be written as "aa"

[@norwaywithpal]

@@lunartree That is true...But usually Scandinavians prefer that the Æ Ø Å are used. My name is Pål... not Paal... :)

[@carnicer78]

Did you say that "æ" sounds the same in Norwegian than in Danish or Swedish? I learned some Danish before learning Norwegian and had that idea, then I thought it was pronounced as in Danish but then I found out it doesn't. That belief caused me not to understand (amongst other reasons) many Norwegian speakers and not to be understood by them :) Or at least, that's my impression. Listening to the DK-SE ladies in the video confirms my impression. Takk!

[@norwaywithpal]

Hey Marc, there is a small difference between how Æ is pronounced in the different Scandinavian countries, but they are so close that I said "the same"... It's a small change of tone, many hardly can hear it and it also differs depending on the word :)

[@shawnhampton8503]

So Norwegian has no Ö? Or is Ø basically the same thing? Also, Pål: I would love to see a video on the various dialects or regional ways of pronouncing words in Norway. I have noticed watching some Norwegian movies that the way R is pronounced seems to have a guttural sound, like the Danes use, with some people, and more forward flipped R, which I seem to hear from Swedish speakers. Curious about this. Takk!

[@norwaywithpal]

Hei Shawn, the Ø is the same as Ö. And you are right, it’s the guttural R. You find that in southern parts of Norway. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guttural_R Good idea for an episode btw :)

[@doveknight]

This is great video! It sounds like Nina and Åsa aren't pronouncing æ the same way as you do? It's sounding a bit more like the e in hello. In Norwegian it's closer to the way we say the letter A in France (tho not completely the same.) Regardless, thank you for this video 🙏💙

[@norwaywithpal]

Hey glad you enjoy the video! Yea you are right, if one listens carefully one will notice a difference between the three languages and how they say Æ Ø Å. Æ in Swedish is for sure more like E. The danish Ø is for instance also a bit more "guttural" , which is typical for the danish language.

[@Vinterfrid]

@@norwaywithpal Not quite true - in the southern parts of Sweden 'Ä' is sometimes pronunced more like 'E', whereas on the northern half of Sweden it's pronounced with a very 'open' sound.

[@RealDogdayFan]

Æ O Å

[@norwaywithpal]

Ø ;)

[@chromosundrift]

Lovely! I understand how the letter Æ is pronounced in Norwegian, Danish and Swedish, but I'm curious if the glyph has any other name which is spelled out using other letters? The Old English name for this letter is æsc, pronounced "ash" as in "ash tree". Perhaps it makes no sense that letters have names which have a spelling other than simply the letter, and of course this seems most natural in languages with consistently phonetic spelling. English is quite a mess in this respect.

[@norwaywithpal]

Hi there! The Æ is sometimes spelled AE (in english), but of course that does not explain how to say it. "Ash" gets pretty close I think. Interesting to know about æsc, I was not aware of that.

[@chromosundrift]

@@norwaywithpal thank you! For reference H in English is spelled aitch although these days some speakers pronounce it “haitch” and I imagine that spelling may be recorded by some dictionaries. I don’t think the idea of letter name spellings is widely known by native English speakers and many letters like vowels are spelled by their lone selves or various informal, ad hoc phonetic spellings in many texts.

[@EnglishOrthodox]

So ø is just like the the German ö?

[@norwaywithpal]

Yep 👍 all though in Germany I think they call it for an “o mit ein umlaut”. I Norway it’s just named ø

[@grzegorzbrzeczyszczykiewic8158]

0:40 QXZ???

[@norwaywithpal]

They were missing! So had to take empty pieces and draw them on

[@Yourmom-qo9ot]

The most normal Ø video

[@norwaywithpal]

😂

[@shadowpastathetf2kidwithau706]

Me seing æ: HOW DO I SAY THIIIIIIS!!!

[@norwaywithpal]

haha... practice practice practice :)

[@DuckDuckDuckDuckDuckDuckDucks]

It’s not used in Norway it’s used in denmark

[@SquishyBrown]

You said hæ was what, but on Duolingo it said hva was what?

[@norwaywithpal]

they both mean what. But hæ is a bit more informal than hva

[@alicja1901]

I’ve just start to learn Norwegian and ‚Æøå’ letters are my nightmare… I can’t see the diffrent between ‚a’ and ‚æ’. ‚O’ and ‚ø’… 🤯

[@norwaywithpal]

I know! I hear that often… I hope my video can help a bit 👍

[@alicja1901]

Yeah now it’s pretty good 😊

[@lordronn472]

The umlaut exists in German too! We have Ü, Ä and Ö. Ö ist pronounced like Ø, Ä KINDA like Å und I think you don’t have Ü

[@norwaywithpal]

Hi Lord Ronn, that is right we don't have the Ü... The other we don't say that they have an umlaut though. Ö or Ø is not an "O with an an umlaut". They are all letters on their own :)

[@lordronn472]

@@norwaywithpal ohhh I see! In German they are called umlauts but do not soft of count as their own letters

[@angelhurtado55]

Sweeden had to be different, couldn't live otherwise

[@norwaywithpal]

😅

[@Vinterfrid]

Well, consider it as Sweden being the 'correct' one and Denmark and Norway chosing somwthing else. 😉

[@ibamuad]

Æ and Ø are very similar to the German Ä and Ö

[@norwaywithpal]

Yes especially the Ø I think. The german ä sounds like a mix between Æ and E

[@Vinterfrid]

They are the same as the Swedish vowels in fact.

[@vakke]

So it’s like what we have here in Finland. Ø is Ö, Æ is Ä and Å is O

[@norwaywithpal]

That could be, is the pronunciation the exact same?

[@wholesand]

Pål: Å = river. Me: Elv = river.

[@norwaywithpal]

Kjært barn har mange navn :)

[@Vinterfrid]

I was just thinking the same - we have the same word (Å) in Swedish. I would call it something inbetween a brook and a river - larger than a brook but smaller than a river.

[@norwaywithpal]

@@Vinterfrid Mange bekker små gjør en stor å

[@oijord]

/ø/ uttales ikke bak i munnen.

[@OMORIIIIIIIIIII]

We all saw this because of searching “ø” for scary stuff.

[@norwaywithpal]

haha!

[@johnhinds1579]

I will need to start practicing these sounds. Pal you are a good teacher.

[@norwaywithpal]

Thanks John, practice makes master :)